Manager, Customer Success

Introduction

The Manager, Customer Success plays a pivotal role in the Customer Success team, driving strategic objectives and ensuring operational excellence. In addition to managing a portfolio of customers, the Manager will lead and empower a regional team of Customer Success Managers, guiding customers through key points of their lifecycle to ensure successful adoption of Optimizely. Acting as the first line of defense for customer escalations, the Manager will collaborate with Sales and Services leads to provide necessary support, ensuring success through global renewals and growth. The Digital team follows a 1:many approach, managing customer relationships with scalability in mind.

As the customer's advocate, the Manager, Customer Success focuses on key success metrics, including customer satisfaction, retention, and identifying new opportunities to expand relationships. The Manager is an expert in Optimizely’s products, technology, and experimentation strategies, fostering a culture of experimentation. Using their experience, business acumen, and project management skills, the Manager empowers customers to build valuable digital programs.

The Manager will maintain regular one-on-ones, organize key enablement exercises, and promote the development and maturity of the team. They will also be responsible for flagging and supporting red accounts, as well as overseeing renewal rate forecasting.

Finally, the Manager serves as the liaison between customers and Optimizely, facilitating collaboration across teams such as Product, Engineering, Sales, and Professional Services to be the voice of the customer within the company.

Job Responsibilities

• In partnership with Sales, own the overall relationship with digital customers, focusing on growing adoption, retention, expansion, and customer satisfaction.
• Work with direct reports to guide and execute strategies to ensure digital customer success.
• Ensure customers adopt best practices for Optimizely's platform.
• Implement and provide a ‘white glove’ service to customers at scale.
• Identify and address client churn risks, collaborating with senior management and team members to mitigate those risks.
• Lead and participate in the creation of strategies that drive product adoption, value realization, and delight throughout the customer lifecycle in collaboration with internal teams.
• Manage customer relationships, including executive-level stakeholder management (C-level).
• Share expertise and organize training sessions for the team to support continuous learning and improvement.
• Analyze data to uncover insights and develop action plans to achieve goals.
• Guide customers through the full lifecycle, from onboarding to successful maturity and growth, while leading the team in this process.
• Develop and maintain a customer success management plan for themselves and the team, executing it effectively.
• Lead personalized, scalable communication with customers, creating opportunities for upselling services and products.
• Drive customer satisfaction by understanding and exceeding customer expectations.
• Represent the Customer Success team at client-facing and internal meetings.
• Report on team performance and implement plans to improve capabilities when necessary.
• Maintain customer success targets through contract renewals and manage the renewal process.
• Innovate the use of CRM and CSM tools to track KPIs and report on team performance.
• Ensure outstanding client retention levels.
• Collaborate effectively with other departments, particularly Sales, V&A, and Marketing teams in the region.
• Continuously engage in self-development regarding Optimizely’s tools and industry trends

Work Hours: Monday to Friday: 2 PM to 10 PM

Knowledge and Experience

• Experience leading a team of Associate Customer Success Managers.
• Strong commercial awareness with an innate drive for customer success.
• Proven leadership capabilities at the group management level.
• Highly driven to achieve top results, break through barriers, and adapt quickly in ambiguous situations.
• Strong conflict management and resolution skills.
• Passionate about people, using initiative, and willing to go the extra mile.
• A “Can Do” attitude with a proactive approach to customer-facing roles.
• Skilled in managing customer expectations, identifying needs, and adapting company capabilities to meet requirements.
• Curiosity-driven with a desire to continuously learn and improve, capable of quickly absorbing new concepts and technologies.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, able to connect business problems with technical solutions and understand technology value propositions.
• Comfortable leading presentations and platform demos, both technical and non-technical.
• Proven track record of achieving targets in a solutions-driven environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Able to work under pressure while maintaining focus and composure.
• Confident communicator with the ability to clearly articulate technical/business issues and solutions.
• Experienced in delivering strategies and plans.
• Self-motivated, confident, and detail-oriented, with a strong drive to achieve.
• Skilled in developing and nurturing talent within the team.
• Energetic, engaging personality, and enjoy working in a collaborative team environment.
• Tenacious in educating the team on company philosophy and product offerings.
• Capable of working autonomously and negotiating long-term relationships.
• Experience with A/B testing/experimentation and statistical methodologies is a plus.
• Familiarity with Optimizely is a plus.

Education

Bachelor’s degree with 5-9 years of experience in Customer Success or a related field.